Opera before 9.52 on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris, when processing custom shortcut and menu commands, can produce argument strings that contain uninitialized memory, which might allow user-assisted remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or conduct other attacks via vectors related to activation of a shortcut.

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-200811-01 (Opera: Multiple vulnerabilities)

    Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in Opera:
    Opera does not restrict the ability of a framed web page to change     the address associated with a different frame (CVE-2008-4195).
    Chris Weber (Casaba Security) discovered a Cross-site scripting     vulnerability (CVE-2008-4196).
    Michael A. Puls II discovered     that Opera can produce argument strings that contain uninitialized     memory, when processing custom shortcut and menu commands     (CVE-2008-4197).
    Lars Kleinschmidt discovered that Opera, when     rendering an HTTP page that has loaded an HTTPS page into a frame,     displays a padlock icon and offers a security information dialog     reporting a secure connection (CVE-2008-4198).
    Opera does not     prevent use of links from web pages to feed source files on the local     disk (CVE-2008-4199).
    Opera does not ensure that the address     field of a news feed represents the feed's actual URL     (CVE-2008-4200).
    Opera does not check the CRL override upon     encountering a certificate that lacks a CRL (CVE-2008-4292).
    Chris (Matasano Security) reported that Opera may crash if it is     redirected by a malicious page to a specially crafted address     (CVE-2008-4694).
    Nate McFeters reported that Opera runs Java     applets in the context of the local machine, if that applet has been     cached and a page can predict the cache path for that applet and load     it from the cache (CVE-2008-4695).
    Roberto Suggi Liverani     (Security-Assessment.com) reported that Opera's History Search results     does not escape certain constructs correctly, allowing for the     injection of scripts into the page (CVE-2008-4696).
    David     Bloom reported that Opera's Fast Forward feature incorrectly executes     scripts from a page held in a frame in the outermost page instead of     the page the JavaScript URL was located (CVE-2008-4697).
    David     Bloom reported that Opera does not block some scripts when previewing a     news feed (CVE-2008-4698).
    Opera does not correctly sanitize     content when certain parameters are passed to Opera's History Search,     allowing scripts to be injected into the History Search results page     (CVE-2008-4794).
    Opera's links panel incorrectly causes     scripts from a page held in a frame to be executed in the outermost     page instead of the page where the URL was located     (CVE-2008-4795).
  Impact :

    These vulnerabilities allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code,     to run scripts injected into Opera's History Search with elevated     privileges, to inject arbitrary web script or HTML into web pages, to     manipulate the address bar, to change Opera's preferences, to determine     the validity of local filenames, to read cache files, browsing history,     and subscribed feeds or to conduct other attacks.
  Workaround :

    There is no known workaround at this time.

The Opera Team reports :

Scripts are able to change the addresses of framed pages that come from the same site. Due to a flaw in the way that Opera checks what frames can be changed, a site can change the address of frames on other sites inside any window that it has opened. This allows sites to open pages from other sites, and display misleading information on them.

Custom shortcut and menu commands can be used to activate external applications. In some cases, the parameters passed to these applications are not prepared correctly, and may be created from uninitialized memory. These may be misinterpreted as additional parameters, and depending on the application, this could allow execution of arbitrary code.

Successful exploitation requires convincing the user to modify their shortcuts or menu files appropriately, pointing to an appropriate target application, then to activate that shortcut at an appropriate time. To inject code, additional means will have to be employed.

When insecure pages load content from secure sites into a frame, they can cause Opera to incorrectly report the insecure site as being secure. The padlock icon will incorrectly be shown, and the security information dialog will state that the connection is secure, but without any certificate information.

As a security precaution, Opera does not allow Web pages to link to files on the user's local disk. However, a flaw exists that allows Web pages to link to feed source files on the user's computer. Suitable detection of JavaScript events and appropriate manipulation can unreliably allow a script to detect the difference between successful and unsuccessful subscriptions to these files, to allow it to discover if the file exists or not. In most cases the attempt will fail.

It has been reported that when a user subscribes to a news feed using the feed subscription button, the page address can be changed. This causes the address field not to update correctly. Although this can mean that misleading information can be displayed in the address field, it can only leave the attacking page's address in the address bar, not a trusted third party address.

The version of Opera installed on the remote host is older than 9.52 and is reportedly affected by several issues :

  - Specially-crafted URLs could start Opera in a way that would allow execution of arbitrary code.
  - Invalid checking of what frames a site can change, allowing a website to open pages from other sites.
  - An unspecified cross-site scripting issue.
  - Custom shortcuts and menu commands may pass parameters created from uninitialized memory.
  - Secure sites loading insecure content in a frame will cause Opera to incorrectly display the padlock icon.
  - Feed sources can link to a user's local disk, and appropriate JavaScript can detect if these files exist or not.
  - The page address may be changed when a user subscribes to a newsfeed subscription using the feed subscription button.

The version of Opera installed on the remote host is earlier than 9.52 and thus reportedly affected by several issues :

  - Specially crafted URLs could start Opera in a way that     would allow execution of arbitrary code.

  - Invalid checking of what frames a site can change,     allowing a website to open pages from other sites.

  - An unspecified cross-site scripting issue.

  - Custom shortcuts and menu commands may pass parameters     created from uninitialized memory.

  - Secure sites loading insecure content in a frame will     cause Opera to incorrectly display the padlock icon.

  - Feed sources can link to a user's local disk, and     appropriate JavaScript can detect if these files exist     or not.

  - The page address may be changed when a user subscribes     to a newsfeed subscription using the feed subscription     button.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
34689	GLSA-200811-01 : Opera: Multiple vulnerabilities	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	critical
34045	FreeBSD : opera -- multiple vulnerabilities (73ec1008-72f0-11dd-874b-0030843d3802)	Nessus	FreeBSD Local Security Checks	high
4634	Opera < 9.52 Multiple Vulnerabilities	Nessus Network Monitor	Web Clients	medium
33949	Opera < 9.52 Multiple Vulnerabilities	Nessus	Windows	high
800814	Opera < 9.52 Multiple Vulnerabilities	Log Correlation Engine	Web Clients	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2008-4197

high

Tenable Plugins

critical

high

medium

high

high